A 6-year-old boy who disappeared in Michigan turned up safe in southwest Wyoming on Monday, while his mom — who didn’t have legal custody of him — was arrested in Evanston.
Liam Malburg has since been safely returned to his father, Uinta County Attorney Loretta Kallas confirmed Tuesday.
Marisa Calliea, 30, meanwhile, remains in the Uinta County Detention Center after being booked at 2:29 p.m. Monday.
His father, Justin Malburg, credits an anonymous tip, an unidentified woman working behind the scenes, the “sharpness of a Wyoming officer and the countless amount of people who came together to help, my son has been found” in a Facebook post at 3:06 p.m. Monday.
That was just 37 minutes after Calliea was booked into jail.
"The state of Wyoming has submitted a charging information to the court, pending the court’s review and docketing of the charges,” Kallas told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “However, those charges are not official, and the charging document is not our record."
Calliea also had not yet made an initial appearance before a Uinta County Circuit Court judge as of Tuesday, Kallas said.
The Uinta County jail roster lists Calliea as a "pre-sentenced" inmate.
A Uinta County Circuit Court clerk confirmed that charging documents involving Calliea had been filed but said they would not be publicly available for 24 hours.
Missing In Michigan
Before Liam surfaced in Wyoming, a missing-child flyer was circulating in Michigan asking people to help find him. The flyer identifies Calliea as Liam's noncustodial parent.
Liam was supposed to be returned to his father Thursday, but was not returned, the flyer says. It also says Calliea had an active bench warrant.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office in Michigan is identified as the investigating agency, with Detective Riley James Walsh listed as the investigator.
Cowboy State Daily reached out to Walsh and the Oakland County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, but neither responded to requests for more information about Liam's disappearance, Calliea's warrant or how the pair came to be in Wyoming.
Cowboy State Daily also reached out multiple times to the Evanston Police Department for more information about how Calliea was located and the events leading up to her arrest, but did not receive a response by publication time.
‘My Son Has Been Found’
By Monday afternoon, however, Liam's father knew the search was over.
Malburg announced that he had been informed that Liam was “safe and sound” and being cared for by the Wyoming Department of Family Services while he caught a flight to Wyoming.
Malburg thanked the people who had shared Liam's flyer, reached out to the family and reported tips during the search.
“The amount of people who reached out, shared the flyer, reported tips ... is just astonishing,” he wrote.
He also singled out an unidentified woman who apparently played a crucial role in finding Liam, saying that, "absolutely none of this would have been possible without you. That is not an understatement, you are the main reason I'm rushing out the door to go pick Liam up.”
He added, “I am forever grateful for you and all you did to help bring him home.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
